FIG. 1A illustrates an exemplary probe card 100 used for probing semiconductor wafers to test the wafers. As shown, the probe card 100 includes a printed circuit board 106, a mounting bracket 102, and needle probes 104. Traces, vias, wiring, and/or other electrical interconnections connect contact pads 116 (see FIGS. 1A and 1B) on the opposite side of printed circuit board 106 with probes 104. The contact pads 116 provide an interface to a tester. As shown in FIG. 1B, the probes 104 make temporary contact with terminals 112 on one or more dice 110 of a semiconductor wafer 108. While the probes 104 are in temporary contact with the die or dice 110, the die or dice 110 are tested.
Often, a die 110 can be sufficiently tested without contacting all of the terminals 112 on the die 110. Any such test scheme, however, typically is verified using a probe card 100 that includes probes 104 for contacting all or most of the terminals 112 on a die 110. During such verification, test engineers typically disable one or more of the probes 104, run tests on a die 110, and then determine whether the die 110 was sufficiently tested without the disabled probes. In the past, test engineers have typically used needle-type probe cards during this test verification stage, and they typically disabled a probe by bending the probe such that it will not make contact with a terminal on a die. FIGS. 1B and 1C illustrate an example. As shown in FIG. 1B, probes 104a and 104b are positioned to make contacts with terminals 112 on a die 110. As shown in FIG. 1C, probe 104b is bent such that it no longer makes contact with a terminal 112. If it is later determined that probe 104b is needed, it is simply bent back into a position in which it will make contact with a terminal 112.